Page 125 of The Stolen Princess
Myka walked toward him, stopping right in front of him. She eyed him as her hand reached inside the bag of pine nuts. “What brings you to Tolsten?” she asked, throwing a nut in her mouth. She didn’t even like pine nuts, but she thought the action made her seem relaxed.
Drake seemed relaxed. He could be getting the world’s best back massage, he was so relaxed. The palm of his hand rested against the table, and his brown eyes danced with absolute pleasure.
“My king sent me,” he said.
She raised her eyebrows. “Are you the only man in Albion who is fit to travel to Tolsten, because you are the only one the king ever seems to send?”
He smiled again. He really needed to stop doing that—stop being so dang charming.
“I had a vested interest in coming.”
“Really?” She raised her eyebrows. “Vested Drake Vestry.”
His lips twitched. “Is that a new nickname?”
“Possibly. I’m trying it out.”
“I think I like it better than Mr. Grabby Hands,” he said.
“I guess it depends on the situation.” Myka smiled. “But you don’t get to decide.”
He set the bag of pine nuts down and hopped off the table, standing right in front of her, and everything inside of her toppled out of control. He closed the gap between them like his body couldn’t stand being apart from hers.
“So you’re a queen now?”
She lifted her chin. “That’s right.”
“Queen Mykaleen,” he said, dragging out theleenpart. “I like how that rolls off the tongue.”
Of course, he would.
“It’s actually Queen Myka. Only Albion royalty like rhyming names.”
His lips jerked. “I see.”
“And you’re still the commander of the Albion army?”
“Maybe.” Drake took another step forward, torturing her with his proximity. “It kind of depends on how the next couple of minutes go.”
She bit back her smile. “How would you like the next couple of minutes to go?”
Drake tilted his head down to hers. “Do you want me to tell you orshowyou?” His voice was deep and husky, reverberating off of her, and Myka held her breath so she could hear every nuance of it.
She lifted her eyes to him. “I’m kind of a visual person, so maybe you’d better show me.”
Slowly, Drake reached out, slipping his hand behind her back. A shaky breath escaped from her lips as his warm touch pressed against the small of her back.
“What I would like to do is to pull you closer,” Drake said as the palm of his hand pulled her body toward his. An intense feeling soaked up her heart as the space between them closed. His free hand swept across the side of her face, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. Her breath turned sharp as his head bent down and he whispered in her ear. “Then I would want to tell you how beautiful you are.” Hot breaths tickled every nerve in her body as he spoke. “The queen version in a dress and the version right now in pants and t-shirt. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Myka’s breath was hung-up somewhere inside of her chest as she listened to each word. Drake had never said anything like that to her before. He’d kissed her, so obviously he was somewhat attracted to her, but to hear that he thought she was beautiful sent a thrill through her body. Ever since the day they had met, Drake had stolen her breath. It was only fair that he felt the same way about her. There needed to be some equality in the relationship.
“This is all good stuff,” she said. Slowly she placed her arms around his neck. “Would it be okay if my arms wrapped around you. Or would that ruin your vision of how this was supposed to go?”
“I could live with that,” he said, nodding.
“Then what?” she asked.
“Well, next I’d probably dive right into my big speech.”
